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MGH Hotline 01.14.11 STRAINS OF SAINT-SAËNS, Bruch and Beethoven filled the Goethe Institut Boston on Dec. 4, as the MGH Department of Dermatology hosted a benefit gala and concert to raise funds for the Vascular Anomalies Center in Vietnam.

STRAINS OF SAINT-SAËNS, Bruch and Beethoven filled the Goethe Institut Boston on Dec. 4, as the MGH Department of Dermatology hosted a benefit gala and concert to raise funds for the Vascular Anomalies Center in Vietnam. Created through a collaboration between the MGH and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the center is located in Ho Chi Minh City and provides free treatment for Vietnamese children with disfiguring birthmarks. R. Rox Anderson, MD, director of the MGH Wellman Center for Photomedicine, and Thanh-Nga Tran, MD, PhD, an MGH dermatologist, have worked closely with the center since its establishment in 2009 and served as co-hosts of the evening.

Approximately 80 guests attended the event, which raised nearly $13,000 and included Vietnamese cuisine, a silent auction and the musical performance. Guests were treated to music by cellist David E. Fisher, MD, PhD, chief of the MGH Department of Dermatology; pianist Vincent C.K. Cheung, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at MIT; violinist Jennifer Frautschi; and vocalist Jamie Lynn Hart.

“The gala was a remarkable tribute to the people who dedicate themselves to this wonderful cause, as well as to the Vietnam clinic itself, which carries out such amazing work,” says Fisher. Proceeds from the event will be used to support and expand the reach of the Vietnam Vascular Anomalies Center and to help fund an educa-tional exchange program between physicians in Vietnam and the United States. For more information about the center, visit www.vietnamvac.org.